Bag volume, weight, cost for touring/bike packing?

[gottobike]

What is the combined volume of bags on your touring or bike packing rig?

What is the total weight of all bags including fixed/floating racks?

What is the total loaded weight (bags, racks, gear, food, fuel, water, cloths, stove, etc) you carry on your touring/bike packing rig?

What was the approx cost per litre for bags?

[John Nettles]

I have way too many varies setups to give a stock answer.  I varies from two small front packs and a handlebar bag (with tent strapped to the rear rack but not in an aftermarket bag) to four panniers with six clip-on pockets, handlebar bag, and a medium sized Ortlieb duffel bag on the rear rack with stuff hanging off wherever. 

Also, do you mean the weight empty or full?  If full, with or without water and food since that can vary greatly depending on when I stock up or if I am heading into a more remote area.  What about if something is not IN a bag but strapped to it, i.e. a water bladder?

Without trying to sound rude, I am curious as to why does the cost per liter matter?  To me, I think that if some gear falls apart quickly or last a really long time, that would be more telling, i.e. cost per liter per mile, but then I doubt anyone has a realistically good answer on that.

Tailwinds, John

[Pat Lamb]

You might also want ask, how durable are the bags, how long do you plan to use them, and are they waterproof?  If you ride through rain (and you will unless you limit yourself to desert trips in the dry season), you'll have to have extra weight in the form of rain covers or waterproof containers inside the panniers.  Cheap panniers cost less than half of my Ortielbs, but the Ortliebs have lasted four times as long as the cheap ones did and still counting.  One-time one week trip?  go cheap.  Not sure if you'll want to do more? go cheap if you can afford to throw some away.  Pretty sure you want to do a month long trip every summer for the next 20 years?  Buy the good stuff up front, it'll pay for itself over the long run.

[El_Chupacabra]

My panniers (old Jandd ones) aren't waterproof - but based on a tip decades ago, I use trash compactor bags for liners inside the panniers. Waterproof and durable.

[John Nelson]

Bag volume: 40L (back) +25L (front) +7L (handlebar) = 72L

Bag weight: 67 oz (back) + 51 oz (front) + 21 oz (handlebar) = 139 oz
Rack weight: 23 oz (rear) + 18 oz (front) = 41 oz

Gear Weight (varies a lot, especially for food and water): 139 oz (bags) + 41 oz (racks) + 115 oz (food & water) + 70 oz (tools & parts) + 155 oz (camping) + 107 oz (clothes) + 133 oz (electronics, toiletries, other) = 760 oz

Current list prices of bags (25% off these prices is pretty easy): $190 (back) + $170 (front) + $90 (handlebar) = $450 ($6.25 per liter)

[John Nettles]

John, you keep way too many stats  .

[John Nelson]

John, you keep way too many stats  .

It’s a curse.

[Inge]

Bags - 2x front Arkel Dolphin 32L/ rear arkel 2x Dolphin 48L, 1 drybag Exped XL for my tent/ chair on the rear rack. Handle bar bag custom made TimTas for my Jones H bar - liters do not know but guess around 4/5.

Weight roughly per bag since it does vary for a 4/5 week tour:
Front right - 3194gr
Front left - 3222gr
Rear Right -6529gr
Rear Left - 5866gr
Handlebar bag - 2218gr
Exped Drybar - 3000gr

Weight roughly per bag since it does vary for a RTW tour - in about 2 years (so am thinking about and slowly putting together a packlist). This is still an ongoing thought proces in which I hope to fine tune a bit more:
Front right - 3694gr
Front left - 3222gr
Rear Right -7838gr
Rear Left - 6508gr
Handlebar bag - 2494gr
Ortlieb Rackpack 31L - 6990gr

Weight bike roughly 21kg

So the weight varies - including the bike from 53.414kg (RTW) to 48.252kg (4/5weeks in cool to hot climate)- this is without water/ fuel.

That's it for my stats.

[hikerjer]

I don't keep track of that kind minutia. My only advice is to get bags a little larger than you think you'll need so you'll have room for any extra you may pick up along the way - most notably food.

[Inge]

I have my packlist in Excel so it's easy to read the numbers 

[staehpj1]

I don't keep track of that kind minutia. My only advice is to get bags a little larger than you think you'll need so you'll have room for any extra you may pick up along the way - most notably food.

I pack really tight and still find I can always stuff a little more in any way.  I'd rather not have much extra capacity in my regular baggage.

I only carry as much food as I need to for any distance, trying to buy food daily when possible.  I really like the "Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Travel Day Pack"  It weighs 2.5 ounces and carries as much as 20 liters for those times when I need to carry a bunch of extra stuff for a short time.  IOt can be worn or strapped on top of your other baggage.  When not needed it packs down to the size of a large key fob.

Carrying an ultra-sil stuff sack to strap on somewhere is another option for extra capacity.  A 15L one weighs only an ounce.

Barring that I have packed a surprising amount of overflow capacity water bottles and/or groceries in jersey pockets when I didn't have the little backpack.  Not for longer distances of hauling, but for that 80-100+ mile stretch with no food or water resupply it can do the trick and get you by for 24, 36 or just maybe even 48 hours.

[froze]

I have two Axiom Monsoon Hydracore 45 bags, they hold 90 liters total for both bags, in those bags I fill them about 3/4ths full and carry a total of 30 pounds including the bags themselves (all my weights include the bags).

I then have a Topeak Tourguide DX handlebar bag that holds 8.1 liters, I have it jam full with 9.8 pounds of stuff in it of the 11 pounds it can hold.  I also have to give a shout out to Topeak, I changed my bag from one bike (one that got totaled) to my new bike and I had cut the straddle cable to fit the old stem, but it wouldn't fit the new one, Topeak sent me out a new cable for FREE even though the warranty expired 2 years ago, what a great company.

I also have a Specialized Top Tube Pack that holds .75 liter and it's jammed full, not sure of the weight but not much.

And my last bag is a Topeak Aero Wedge large, I think it holds 1.97 liters and it too is jammed, weight is at 3 pounds.

I carry a Marmot Tungsten 2 5 pound tent; a Alps Mountaineering Fusion 40 sleeping bag at 2 pounds, but I don't think it weighs that much; and a Therm A Rest Base Camp that weighs 3.6 pounds (I had to go with the thicker one due to lower back fusion issues that couldn't find comfort in the thinner ones).  Those items do not get stuffed into a pannier.

I carry 120 ounces of water, plus the bottles they're around 8 pounds total.

The bike weighs 35 pounds.

Including the bike I have about 100 pounds round up, plus I weigh 173 with cycling clothes on.

I do carry 3 days worth of food, but I start looking for food after the 2nd day is consumed, I always try to have an extra day of food just in case.  The food is included in the pannier weight.

Water weight I could lose about 60 ounces if I used my Sawyer water filter since I'm near bodies of water either on the way or at campsites, or I can pop into any fast food place and get water for free, but I prefer knowing that I have plenty of water...I'm weird that way.

I got my Axiom Monsoon Oceanweave Hydracore bags on a crazy sale for just $120 for the pair including shipping, the retail was $230 for the pair plus shipping.  These bags are fantastic too, they took a 2 hour downpour without rain flys and nothing inside was remotely damp.  I did buy a set of rain flys for them but not for rain, but rather to protect the outside of the bag from abrasion and dirt, plus they're a neon yellow so they show up better.  They are a roll down type of bag.  No matter what panniers you buy you should put stuff in zip lock bags to make sure nothing gets wet, or something inside ruptures and messes up your stuff.  I also line the bags with a brown yard waste type of trash bag, this is to prevent stains and smells getting on the bags.  I kind of overkill with this bag stuff but I ran into a lot of touring people who after bad experiences now do all the plastic bagging stuff.  Anyway I am very pleased with those Axiom bags, PLUS, I lost one of the bottom bag slide supports because I forgot to tighten the adjusting screw, Axiom sent me TWO for FREE!  This was my fault for losing it and my warranty was gone, but they sent them anyways, another great company.

I just got a 21 watt Nekteck solar charger and a Ravpower 10,000 powerpack battery, I was able to charge up my Iphone from 5% to 100% in 4 hours, just on solar alone, it normally takes 3 hours off the wall!  If you got rechargeable battery stuff and aren't always near electric, wow, that particular NekTeck works fantastic, I was surprised as to how well it worked after reading complaints and worrying about other brands now working well at all and wondering how would this one work, I would have sent it back, but it works beyond what I hoped for, which all the reviews said it was a good choice.   The charger wasn't expensive at only $42 and I saw a few that were more than twice that price and didn't fair as well; the battery pack I got was the cheapest one I could find at $14, it's just in case I don't have sun and I need to charge something.  Those small one panel solar chargers, don't waste your money, a friend of mine had several of those and kept sending them back because he would try to charge his phone and after setting out all day for 12 hours it would only be 20 to 25% charged.

The only weight I'm considering adding is very small handgun, either a Glock 42 or a Bond Arms Backup derringer that shoots 45 acp instead of 9mm like the Glock; I haven't decided yet on that.  I'm worried about wild animals than people.

[BikeliciousBabe]

I don't keep track of that kind minutia. My only advice is to get bags a little larger than you think you'll need so you'll have room for any extra you may pick up along the way - most notably food.

+1. And the thought of calculating cost/liter never once crossed my mine. It is simply not a consideration for me. I bought what I thought would meet my needs.

[staehpj1]

+1. And the thought of calculating cost/liter never once crossed my mine. It is simply not a consideration for me. I bought what I thought would meet my needs.

Cost per liter makes no sense to me as a consideration either.  Cost and volume may both be a consideration, but I don't get tying the two together.  I need a certain amount of volume and consider that unrelated to cost factors.  It isn't like I would buy more or less volume based on what the cost was.  I buy the amount of capacity I need and may spend more or less depending on other factors than volume.

[froze]

I don't get the cost per liter either; I just keep it simple, cheap and as light as I can get for the price yet still hold up for a long time, and that can be the most difficult challenge of finding the right combination.